Holocaust Center for HumanitySeattle, WA

“Any community is in danger of falling into
intolerance.”

- Ilana Kennedy, Director of Education, Holocaust
Center for Humanity

Founded in 1989 by Holocaust survivors, the Holocaust
Center for Humanity inspires students and teachers around the
country to learn and teach about the Holocaust. Like Anne’s diary,
it teaches young people about the horrors witnessed during the Second
World War, and the terrible consequences of intolerance and hate.

The Holocaust Center for Humanity received a stark reminder of just
how horrific those consequences can be on July 28, 2006, when a gunman
broke into its building, and shot and killed one of the Center’s
friends and colleagues, while severely wounding five others. The
shooting stunned the city of Seattle and the entire Pacific
Northwest—an area renowned for its tolerance. Amid the mourning
that followed, people of all walks of life united behind a common vision
for peace, justice, and mutual-respect. That vision is kept alive today
through Anne Frank’s diary. The planting of her tree in Seattle
will offer a living testament to the senselessness of violence and the
enduring struggle for tolerance throughout the United States and beyond.